page_title: Congressional Baseball Game
section_title: Locations
hierarchical_section_title: Congressional Baseball Game / Locations
caption_attribution_description: English: Orioles playing one of the final major league baseball games at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium.
context_page_description: The Congressional Baseball Game for Charity is an annual baseball game played each summer by members of the United States Congress. The game began as a casual event among colleagues in 1909 and eventually evolved into one of Washington, D.C.'s most anticipated annual pastimes, according to the House of Representatives Office of the Historian. In the game, Republicans and Democrats form separate teams and play against each other.
  Today, the game raises money for four charities: the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation, the Washington Literacy Center, and—following a pre-game practice shooting in 2017—the US Capitol Police Memorial Fund. The game is usually attended by crowds of congressional staffers and, occasionally, even dignitaries and US Presidents.
context_section_description: The Game was originally played at the American League Park. However, after the park's destruction in a fire in March 1911, it was played at the Griffith Stadium built on the same site in Northwest Washington, D.C. In 1962, it was moved to the new District Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium). It remained there until 1972, when the Washington Senators moved to Texas becoming the Texas Rangers as RFK did not need a long-term baseball seating layout or field. It moved for the next two decades to the Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, then to Langley High School in McLean, Virginia for 1977; and Four Mile Run Park in Alexandria, Virginia. From 1995 to 2004, the game was played in Prince George's Stadium in Bowie, Maryland. From 2005 to 2007, the event returned to RFK Stadium when the Montreal Expos moved  to Washington to become the Washington Nationals. In 2008, Nationals Park was completed and the Nationals moved there along with the Congressional Baseball Game.
  In the late 1960s, a post-game reception for members of Congress and their staffs was organized and sponsored by Sears, Roebuck and Company. However, attendance was very low until 1972 when Sears' Washington office Public Information officer, Larry Horist took over the management of the event, and established the Most Valuable Player awards to be voted by each team and presented by the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate. He also obtained photos of the players in their hometown uniforms, producing baseball cards packaged in gum wrappers. A limited number of autographed master sheets of the cards occasionally appear for sale on Internet auction sites. The cards included such personalities as Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN), Barry Goldwater, Jr. (R-AZ), and professional player "Vinegar Bend" Mizell (R-NC). The cards were publicized in the Washington Post and became part of the permanent collection of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
caption: Memorial Stadium, Baltimore
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